An Invitation to an Online Weaving Photo Exhibition

Guideline:

1) We weave. Or dig up something we wove.

2) We take delicious, styled photos of our weaving. The focus is on the cloth and photographs. Think of the kind you'd like to put on your Etsy page, in a glossy, stylish magazine article/advertizing, or in an exhibition catalogue. (Fashion/travel mags are different from art mags, but they both work for our purposes here.) Photoshopping is allowed, but here's a loose guideline; say someone buys your expensive work based on the photograph/s, you don't want them surprised and/or ask for their money back. Or ignore this completely and take your weaving where no weaver has taken them before.

The photograph/s must be taken between now and when the posts go up. 

3) We post photos on our blogs on Friday, November 14 or Saturday, November 15 your time. You email me the link to your post. I'll update the links on mine as they come in. If you like, I can send you the final link list for you to add on your post. Write details/stories about the woven piece/s if you like, but keep in mind this is a "photo" exhibition, so keep it tight. Text is not required, but an easy way for folks to comment or to get in touch with you is recommended.

You are requested to link back to my exhibition post, if not including the full list.

Up to you whether/where to include watermarks/copyright identification, but let us see the photo/s and weaving unobstructed.

"Blog" can be a word-and-photo blog on Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, etc; it can be a dedicated folder on Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, etc.  I don't know much about Instagram or Pinterest or whatever else, so you'd have to send me a link to your folder so I can have a look. I also can't help you if there is a phone/tablet/laptop compatibility problem. 

4) If you like, you can write more about the cloth/photo shoot/s in a separate post, but not on the same day as your exhibition post. If you post before the big reveal, keep the details of the exhibition mysterious, please? (I am terribly interested in how people shoot textiles, hint, hint.)

5) Maximum number of photos is six-ish per weaver. But if you're on a roll, forget it.

6) You must email me a link to your exhibition post as I'm too old to go looking for a likely post and I can't be bothered finding out if you wanted to be included in the first place. However, if life interferes and you must schedule/postdate your post, send me your blog url and when the post is scheduled to go public, and I'll come around to pick up the link on the day.

7) And I'm still looking for a snappy name for our exhibition.

So far I've received expressions of interest from Kaz, Margery, Laura* and Sampling*. (I need to come pick up your links if your name has *.) Comment here, (or email me if Blogger eats your comment,) for any questions/suggestions/musings/complaints.

EDIT: This is a long-winded reply to a couple of inquiries to which you might have expected a yay or nay.

What I envisioned as part of this photo shoot experience, (and for me the shoot is more important,) is to have a slow, long and intentional look at our textiles, and maybe even ponder such matters as quality, points of view, and excellence. It is in reaction to fast and indiscriminate dispersal of "information", images in particular, sans reflection, consideration or examination, and the changing attitudes towards the act of photographing. I imagined sharing reactions/afterthoughts afterwards from treating our cloths in this manner, instead of shoot-post-and-wait-for-Likes-LOL.

But as weavers, no matter how busy or active, we are gifted these otherworldly stepping-back moments which afford us thoughts. And marrying the two, my intention was to show each other "composed" photographs of our cloths, and even how we'd like our cloths to be seen.

As all else I host, I'd prefer to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Having said that, the reason I keep stressing "photo" and "shoot" is because I myself am tired of quick incidental pics. (Although that is not to say occasionally these turn out beautifully and of course they are welcome.)

So what you use to shoot and how/where you post don't intrinsically dis/qualify from taking part; you don't have to have an expensive camera or special backdrops or lights, either. But I would appreciate participants taking note of the spirit of this do.

EDIT: Or ignore it.

EDIT: I ruled out Instagram.

And you're still welcome to comment here, (or email me if Blogger eats your comment,) for any questions/suggestions/musings/complaints. I hear comments from tablets get eaten up more often.